Monday, May 25, 2015

Recently I read Unbroken for my women's book group. It made me think about my father, who is pictured below, and it seemed appropriate to write about it on Memorial Day.

WWII Naval Aviator Francis G. Lilly with his mother

Like Louis Zamperini, whose life Unbroken chronicles, my dad was a WWII naval aviator. Dad tried to join the Army and was turned down because he had flat feet. He was then not only accepted by the Navy, but trained to be a pilot. He enlisted just before the Pearl Harbor attack and remained in the service six months after the war ended so he could keep flying. (He commented as an aside once that the Navy nurses really liked getting rides in the planes when he did his flights to keep certification during that time period, but I never could get much more detail about that. Perhaps because my mom was usually around when I was talking with my dad.)

What I didn't understand until I read Unbroken was the great danger to aviators and their crews even when not in combat. Like Zamperini, my dad was stationed in the Pacific. He never said a whole lot about the war, only that he loved flying and that he hadn't seen combat. One of his squadron mates, when I called about my dad’s funeral, told me they had a running joke at the reunion based on my dad setting the record for crashing the most planes during maneuvers. What was left out of that statement, I'm guessing, is that he was the pilot who crashed the most planes and survived. I learned from Unbroken that a high percentage of aviators died training, preparing, and practicing maneuvers--exactly what my dad did during his years in the Navy--regardless whether they flew in battles. I'm sure that percentage is even higher for those stationed on aircraft carriers, as my dad was. After reading the book, I searched Google for my dad's name and found it on a list of Navy and Marine aircraft accidents for which reports have been collected.

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Dad always made it sound exciting when he talked about parachuting out at the last moment. It never occurred to me to ask him about those who did not make it, and there must have been many, which may be why he didn't talk about his time in the war. I also am guessing that his experience flying and understanding and avoiding danger is part of why he emphasized safety so much when teaching us to drive. I remember him telling me that whenever I was on the road, I should glance at the rear and side view mirrors regularly to be sure I was aware of what other cars were doing. Also, he said, I should assess the traffic around me at all times and mentally prepare for what I would do if someone stopped suddenly, ran out in front of me, or swerved toward me. Always know your escape route.

Unbroken author Laura Hillenbrand quotes an ordnance officer who describes various safety issues with WWII aircraft that resulted in accidental deaths and says, “Life is cheap in war.” According to the statistics in the book, 35,946 personnel in the air corps died in WWII in non-combat situations, mostly in accidental crashes.

My dad, who survived WWII and lived for many years after, was killed at age 88 by a drunk driver, along with my mother, who was 84. According to the NHTSA, in 2007, the year my parents died, intoxicated drivers caused 12,998 deaths. On our streets and highways, too, life is cheap.

So on this Memorial Day, my hope is that as the human race continues to evolve, we will value life more and more, that our roads will be safer, and our battles fewer.

And to all our women and men in the military, then and now, thank you for your service.

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Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the occult thrillers The
Awakening and The Unbelievers, Books 1 and 2 in the Awakening series. A short
film of the title story of her collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and
Two Other Tales of Urban Horror was recently produced under the title Willis
Tower. If you'd like to be notified of new releases and read reviews on
M.O.S.T. (Mystery, Occult, Suspense, Thriller), click here to join her email
list.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Recently I attended a talk by Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl. A week later I read The Girl on the Train. Both books are hugely popular and both feature more than one first person narrator who may be unreliable. Which led me to wonder: is that part of why readers enjoyed both books so much? And if so, why?

The Encyclopeadia Britannica offers this definition of an unreliable narrator “…one who does not understand the full import of a situation or one who makes incorrect conclusions and assumptions about events witnessed…” This may occur because the character lacks the age or capacity to understand or convey accurately what is happening, such as where she or he suffers from mental illness (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), has blackouts due to alcoholism (The Girl on the Train), or is a child (Room). Unreliable narrators can also be viewpoint characters that deliberately lie or withhold information from the reader.

This literary device is not a new one. Articles and lists on the topic usually include classics such as Lolita,Huckleberry Finn, and The Great Gatsby. But when I did a Google search about why readers enjoy such stories, most of the results were articles and posts directed at writers, not readers.
Personally, I can think of three reasons for our love of these types of stories.

First, a tale told by one or more than one unreliable narrator creates a puzzle for the reader, or adds more layers to an already-existing mystery, as in both Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. In a typical suspense novel, the reader attempts to put together what she sees and learns through the viewpoint character’s eyes to solve a mystery or guess how the plot will unfold. Adding one or more narrators who might not be telling the whole truth means the reader must assess the characters’ honesty, knowledge, and understanding, requiring more reading between the lines. This allows a higher level of reader engagement and is more satisfying for the reader who unravels one or more story questions or successfully spots misrepresentations. It can also lead to anger and disappointment if the reader feels the author didn’t play fair; for instance, by not sufficiently signaling that the narrator may not be fully truthful. (I felt this way about Presumed Innocent but, to be fair, the cues might have been there and I missed them.)

Second, on a related note, unreliable narration adds to the surprises or twists many readers enjoy in novels. By making the resolution less predictable and what actually occurred less clear, there is more room for a turn in the story that is well supported and yet still a shock. Also, revelations about how true or false a particular character’s narration is can come at different points during the book, adding to the intrigue and providing many plot turns.

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Finally, and most significant, unreliable narration reflects real life. In both reality and fiction, every narrator is unreliable to some degree, as we all see the world through the lenses of our own personal experiences, knowledge, and emotions. If that weren’t so, there would be far less conflict, and far fewer lawsuits, diminishing my work in my other life as a lawyer. Try asking two different family members who attended the same holiday gathering and had an argument to describe it. What each remembers about what was said and done will be different. And even if both remember the same words, the meaning that’s drawn from them will vary. Likewise, the courts are full of disputes where business partners discover after the fact that they had completely different understandings of contracts to which they agreed. Because no one knew what was in the other person’s mind, everything went smoothly until it was time to sell the business, or one partner wanted out, or another decided to hire his or her child as the president.

Our political process offers yet another example of this phenomenon. If you read the responses of the two major political parties to the same words spoken by the president, you might easily conclude that two different speeches were given. And one need only look at the reactions to the changes in the laws regarding health insurance to see the same effect on a personal level. I believe the new health insurance laws are wonderful for small businesses. Any number of owners of small businesses might disagree with me, starting with what counts as a small business. Right now, I’m a business of one, so I’m definitely small. But depending upon the industry, the Small Business Administration includes companies with as many as 1,500 employees as a “small business.” It’s unlikely a 1,500-employee company and I will have the same view of how a law affects our livelihoods.

And to segue to a topic more interesting than health insurance (and what isn’t), consider romance. There’s a reason He Said, She Said is the title of a 1990s RomCom and has been the basis for hundreds of thousands if not millions of books, plays, and movies throughout the ages.

So, ultimately, my take on the popularity of books with unreliable narrators is that these books more accurately reflect how we live from day-to-day. But who knows, my comments on this topic may be completely unreliable.

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Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the occult thrillers The Awakening and The Unbelievers, Books 1 and 2 in the Awakening series. A short film of the title story of her collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror was recently produced under the title Willis Tower. If you'd like to be notified of new releases and read reviews on M.O.S.T. (Mystery, Occult, Suspense, Thriller), click here to join her email list.